British Summer Time Never Has To End

Half of the people reading this probably woke up on Sunday morning in glee. An extra hour snuggled under the duvet, for free. - an additional sixty minute's kip without having to wake up in a panic that you're an hour late for your Sunday morning plans.

But, the rest of us woke up with dread; another hour's sleep is no real compensation for losing an hour's daylight, which marks the unrelentingly miserable descent into pitch blackness by 3pm in December.

Daylight savings were initially introduced in the United Kingdom by William Willett in 1907. The rationale behind the change was to ensure that workers did not waste valuable hours of sunlight in the morning and thus stifle productivity and the economy.

Many other countries reached parallel conclusions in the 20th century but now, vast swathes of those nations and territories have come to recognise the drawbacks of daylight savings and have scrapped the practice altogether - including most of Australia and parts of the United States and Canada.

Despite the then logic behind its implementation, today's times are very different, with the majority of British workers labouring away from 9am until 5pm, five days a week. That means during the height of winter, we see all of our daylight come and go during working hours, with the sun rising an hour or so before we're on the clock, and it setting an hour before we're even allowed to leave the workplace.

It is an unquestionably better idea to increase daylight hours as close to quitting time as possible, when workers are far more likely to engage in social activities, improving morale across the board.

On the surface, this may seem an asinine debate to be having, but the effects of having a bi-annual shift in time zone are actually far reaching.

Statistics show that most criminal activity, particularly robberies and burglaries transpire during the dark evening hours; by staying in BST (British Summer Time) all year round we would be able to minimise those periods by an hour for five months a year.

In terms of business, Chmura Economics and Analytics have claimed that the bi-annual changes cost the United States economy $2bn a year, just from the 10 minutes it takes for workers to update all of their clocks. Moving an hour ahead would also put the UK on European Central Time, an act of solidarity with the European market which we have recently scorned.

Of course, I wish it really could be summer every day, but in the UK, that will never be possible. In autumn and winter, we are powerless to resist accepting the damp, the cold and the dreary, but we needn't accept more darkness than is necessary. The benefits of retaining British Summer Time all-year round are staggering, let's turn the clocks forward - and be happier, healthier and better off for it.

MORE:

SUBSCRIBE AND FOLLOW STUDENTS

Get top stories and blog posts emailed to me each day. Newsletters may offer personalized content or advertisements.
Learn more

Newsletter

Please enter a valid email address

Thank you for signing up! You should receive an email to confirm your subscription shortly.There was a problem processing your signup; please try again later